


Autumn Winds

by ConstantlyComic



Category: RWBY
Genre: AU that was angstier than the show until the Season 3 finale, Arkos-ish, F/F, F/M, Loss of Identity, Maiden!Pyrrha
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-27
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-06-04 18:56:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 18,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6670900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConstantlyComic/pseuds/ConstantlyComic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cross-posted on fanfiction.net.  Pyrrha has become the new Fall Maiden, but the aura transfer combined her mind with Amber's, creating a new person who barely remembers either's life. When Jaune becomes the new Maiden's companion/bodyguard, he struggles with the loss of one of the most important women in his life while protecting the stranger in her body.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Desperate Measures

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick note here: this work and its surrounding AU are the brainchild of bobnotk, and he and I have been co-writing it since its inception. He doesn't have an AO3 account and for some reason won't get one, so I'm posting it for him. It's seven chapters in there and updates every two weeks, so my plan is to update twice a week until we're caught up, then we'll be on the regular posting schedule.

Jaune ran as fast as his combat-weary legs could carry him through the Beacon halls towards the JNPR dorm.  The Grimm invasion had slowed down and the few remaining White Fang were being taken care of by the other students and teachers.  But Jaune wouldn’t rest until he made it to his room and saw that Pyrrha was alright.  Up until moments earlier they had been fighting side-by-side felling any Grimm or White Fang that stood in their way, but when they noticed that other students needed help they had decided to split up.  Jaune had told Pyrrha to meet back at the room once they had everything under control.

But when Jaune pushed open the door to the JNPR dorm, instead of any familiar face, he was met with an empty room.  Pyrrha was nowhere to be seen, but there was a piece of paper on his bed.  Slowly Jaune walked over to his bed to pick up paper that was sitting on his pillow.  It had his name written on it, and it was in Pyrrha’s handwriting.  He skimmed the letter once, then read it again much more intently.  It all sounded so unbelievable, but there was no way he could possibly have misread it.  He quickly folded the letter and rushed out of the room.  The letter had told him to go to the headmaster’s office.  He had to hurry.

Jaune reached the elevator that would take him directly to Ozpin but just when he was about to open it—all thoughts of knocking lost in the urgency—it opened to reveal the Headmaster himself.

“Mister Arc,” the grey-haired man took a sip from his coffee cup, “I take it Ms. Nikos left you a letter, and judging by your expression it led you here and to me.”  The words were spoken in the same way as the opening speech that he gave when Jaune had first arrived at Beacon.

“What’s going on?” Jaune demanded.  “I mean, I got the note, but what is this?  Why does it have to be Pyrrha?”  His voice rose in volume as he spoke, until he was close to yelling.

Ozpin kept his expression, as if one of his students wasn’t near-panic in front of him.  “It will be much easier to tell you on the way down,” he said, “Now have you made your decision or are you just going to stand there?”

“I made my decision.  Take me to Pyrrha.”

The Beacon Headmaster entered the elevator, Jaune following, and the two began their descent.  On the way down Ozpin explained everything.  He told Jaune the story of the Four Maidens, summarized the results of the attack on the Fall Maiden, and clarified that it was his decision to select Pyrrha to undergo the Aura Transfer to try and protect as much of the Fall Maiden’s powers as possible.  Ozpin assured Jaune that becoming the Fall Maiden had been completely up for Pyrrha to decide and she had chosen to undergo the aura transfer.

“Jaune, I wish to ask a favor of you.”  Before the young man had a chance to take all this in, Ozpin was speaking again, “The Seasonal Maidens have great power, but the world is a dangerous place.  In recent years, Maidens have traveled with other Huntsmen or Huntresses.  These Shadows, as they’re called, act as traveling companions as well as bodyguards to the Maidens, should something… go wrong.  Ms. Nikos does not have a Shadow assigned to her at this point.  I was hoping you would take the job.”

“I’ll do anything if it means I can stay by Pyrrha’s side.”  Jaune’s eyes glinted in determination.  “I promised her I would.”

The elevator dinged and the doors opened as it reached the lowest floor of the academy.  As soon as the two left the elevator, they were greeted with the slight odor of whiskey.

“Yo, Oz.  The Aura Transfer just started.  She should be ready in a few minutes, so you might want to hurry up.  You’re gonna have some explainin’ to do when she gets out.”  The black-haired man leaning on the wall drawled.  He seemed to notice Jaune then, and asked, “This her partner?”

“This is Jaune Arc, Ms. Nikos’ partner, team leader, and her new Shadow.  Which also will make him your apprentice Qrow.”

The man—Qrow—walked up to Jaune, staring intently into his eyes into his.  After a moment, he nodded.  “Training will start once Nikos is through with the Transfer.” Qrow extended a hand towards Jaune, “Qrow Branwen.  You pal around with my nieces.”  So this was Ruby’s Uncle Qrow?  He wasn’t what Jaune had expected.

“My name is Jaune Arc.  I’m the leader of team JNPR.”  With all that was going on, it was nice to have something familiar to fall back on, even if it was just his team name, “Now what exactly is this Aura Transfer?” At that moment, a noise came from further down the hall.

“I’ll explain later.  All you need to know right now is it just finished up. You might want to put your hood up,” Qrow added over his shoulder as he strode down the hall, “we still have no idea what the Aura Transfer does to a person’s mind.  Seeing someone close to part of her might cause her psyche to tear itself apart.”

Jaune didn’t like the sound of that, but he lifted his hood over his head and walked down the corridor with the two older Huntsmen.  After a short, silent walk, they reached a room with two pods in the middle.  One pod contained a woman with brown hair and a scar on her face.  The other was Pyrrha.  As the trio approached the ominous setup, the pod containing Pyrrha was opened and its occupant stumbled out coughing like she was trying to get as much air into her lungs as possible.

Ozpin was the first to speak, “Do you remember anything?”

She shook her head, and Jaune’s heart plummeted.  “I don’t even think I know my own name.”  Pyrrha—or the woman in her body—closed her eyes for a moment, then said, “There is a word that stands out to me though, Autumn.”  She shrugged.  “I guess that is as good of a name as any right now.”  Jaune stared at her in disbelief.  This woman, this Autumn seemed so different from the Pyrrha he knew.

“I don’t have much time to explain what is going on Autumn, but we need your help.”  Ozpin stepped forward, extending a hand toward the stranger who looked like Pyrrha, “You have some of the Fall Maiden’s powers and the rest is right outside.  Follow me and I will explain on the way.”  Ozpin turned and Autumn followed closely behind.  As they walked past Jaune and Qrow, Jaune tried to make eye contact with Autumn to see if there were any sign other than her body that Pyrrha was there, but she didn’t even acknowledge him.  Once they left for the elevator Qrow started walking down a different hallway towards a door at the end of the hall.

“Kid hurry up, your training is starting now.” Qrow called out from the end of the hall.

Jaune caught up with Qrow outside a metal door with a clock face embedded on it.  It gave off a strange feeling Jaune couldn’t quite place.  Qrow opened the door and allowed Jaune to enter, then he followed and locked the door behind them. 

The room seemed far too large for the small door that they used to enter.  The area they were standing in wasn’t unlike an ordinary apartment, but beyond that stretched a vast and empty space.  A clock on one of the tables caught Jaune’s attention.  It appeared to have stopped; he watched it for at least a minute, but the second hand hadn’t even twitched.  Qrow must have noticed Jaune’s fixation with the clock and quickly explained.

“It’s not stopped,” he said brusquely, as he made his way to the apartment area, “It just runs on the time outside rather than the time in here.” He removed the cape that draped over his shoulders and hung it over a chair.

“What do you mean it runs on the time outside?”  Jaune asked, confused. Qrow, who was already sitting down replied, “This room is special.  Oz made it when he was tinkering with Dust and his Semblance.  A year in here only takes about four hours out there.  This is where I am going to train you to be that girl’s Shadow.”

Qrow took the clock and set an alarm for when 4 hours had passed outside and drew his sword. “I hope you’re ready kid.”


	2. When John Met Autumn

Jaune was flipping the page in a book—one he’d already read three times, but who’s counting—when the alarm started blaring.  At first, he looked frantically around in surprise, but once Qrow got up he realized what was going on.  The sound came from the timer that Qrow had set all that time ago: a year to him and his newly trained body and a few hours outside the door.

“Grab your stuff kid,” Qrow hastily tidied the living area and grabbed his weapon, “once we walk out that door, you’re a Shadow.”  With the time being so close to up, the elder Huntsman had given his student some time to rest.  When Jaune had asked why they didn’t spend that time getting in some last-minute training, Qrow had shaken his head.  “You’ve got a lot more to learn, kid,” he’d assured him, patting him on the back, “but nothing else I can teach you here.”

Jaune got up from the bed he had used for the entirety of the training year and grabbed three objects from the table nearby.  One was his improved armor—his old armor hadn’t lasted long, but thankfully, one of the rooms in the chamber contained a forge.  The armor only covered his left shoulder with plates extending to cover his entire arm, and if Jaune wished the armor could encompass his torso as well, but it left his right arm uncovered for freedom of mobility.  The second item on the table was a sword, similar to Crocea Mors but with a few modifications in order for Jaune to make better use of his combat training.  The sword was just as heavy but with a thinner blade and six inches longer.  With a simple press of a button on the hilt and the sound of gears turning, the sword shifted into a rifle.  Jaune gave it a quick check, made sure everything was in order, then shifted it back to its sword from and placed it on his back.

The final item on the table was Crocea Mors, the weapon he took from his home when he went off to Beacon.  The weapon he’d used to vanquish Grimm.  The weapon he’d used when training with Pyrrha.  He looked pensively at the weapon for a moment, then picked it up.

As Jaune made his way to the door, he caught a glimpse of a mirror out of the corner of his eye.  He paused in front of it, reflecting on how much he’d changed during his training.  His hair had grown and he’d put it in a little ponytail like Ren’s—although his was shorter.  He brought his right hand to his cheek and traced the scar that had appeared on his face a few weeks after training had begun. 

He approached the door with a single question in his mind: How much has changed?  He took a breath, then he and Qrow stepped through the door

The vault looked the same.  At least that meant nothing had gotten down there in the last four hours.  Four hours.  That was all that had passed.  Just when Jaune was about to ask what to do next, a familiar silver-haired figure strode into the room.

“Mr. Arc,” Professor Ozpin seemed a good deal more tired than he had the last time Jaune had seen him, “I see that your training with Qrow went well.  Not only did you survive, but you seem to have grown a good deal in such a short amount of time.”

“Ozzy, you know I wouldn’t intentionally kill one of my pupils.  He only got close once,” Qrow paused, considering.  “Okay, maybe three times.”

Enough with the small talk.  “What about Pyrrha?  How is she?” Jaune interrupted, anxious to hear something good.

“I better go and make sure my nieces are still alive.  Tai would kill me if something were to happen to either of them.”  Qrow headed down towards the elevator leaving Jaune and Ozpin behind.  As the elevator's hum faded, Ozpin returned to the Jaune's question.

“Autumn has yet to fully recover all of the Fall Maiden’s powers or either Amber or Pyrrha’s memories.  However, we did discover that the stolen parts of the Fall Maiden’s powers are drawn to Autumn.  Cinder saw this during the battle, so she fled to preserve what she still had.”

Jaune’s heart sank at the realization that the Pyrrha he knew, the one who wrote the now tattered letter that rested in his pocket, might not be there anymore.

“The fragments of the power that Autumn did recover seemed to calm her mind and help put what memories she has of her past selves’ memories in order.  I am confident that she is no longer at risk of any unknown circumstances occurring if she is to see someone she knows.  Although she might not recognize them.”

Jaune perked up at that statement.  Perhaps if Autumn were to see him, then maybe some of Pyrrha would come through.

“However.” Any part of him that had been excited or hopeful about Pyrrha’s recovery sank back into despondency with the ‘however.’  That ‘however’ meant it would be a long time before he would be able to be with Pyrrha again, if ever. “We still wish to keep the secret of who Autumn is, and by extension your identity as her Shadow.”

“What do you mean Professor?”

“I mean, Mister Arc that officially both Miss Nikos and you died in the Vale attacks.  Do not worry, the sacrifice that the two of you made not only saved thousands of lives, but also drove the remaining White Fang and Grimm away from the city.”

The sentence was matter-of-fact, but the implications left Jaune standing there stunned.  How could this be possible?  How could they just decide he died like that?  But as upset as he was, he understood.  This course of action would keep them safe as they tracked Cinder down to get the rest of her power back and keep their friends and family from those same foes that would use them as bait.

“Could you at least make sure my family gets this.” Jaune handed Crocea Mors to Ozpin, “And let them know that I wasn’t a complete failure?”

Ozpin took the sheathed sword with a solemn nod.  “Do not worry Mr. Arc, you will have the highest honors that we can offer bestowed upon you.  One last bit of housekeeping we need to complete before I take you to where Autumn is.  Jaune Arc is officially dead.  You will need another name.”

It felt like Pyrrha wasn’t the only one who was becoming a different person.  “How about John?  It’s close enough to my real name that I shouldn’t have any problem answering to it.”

“Very well John,” Ozpin nodded, “now if you will follow me this way.  Autumn’s hair got a little singed and I understand you have seven sisters, so I imagine you would know a thing or two about cutting hair.”

The two left the room and walked down the hallway that connected that room to the room where the Aura Transfer took place.  Jaune and Ozpin entered the elevator and started their ascent.  The ride was shorter. They must still be underground.  When they reached their destination they walked through a single door that opened up into a room only a little bigger than a Beacon dorm room.  In the middle was a single chair which was occupied by Pyrrha—or at least someone who looked just like her.  Although Jaune could see small places on her clothes where she was burned, but her skin was still flawless.  Her hair hadn’t been so lucky.  It was singed at the tips leaving a small bit of black visible.  She looked up when she saw the two men enter the room.

Ozpin spoke first.  “Amber, this is John.  He will be your Shadow while you are traveling across Remnant.  He is also a passable stylist so he can fix your hair issue.”  Autumn stood up and approached the two with a smile.  “Now if you will excuse me, I suspect that Glynda and Ironwood still require assistance with the cleanup efforts.  I also have an idea I wish to run by Ironwood.  I will return shortly to show you two to your rooms, you will be staying up a few floors.”

With that statement Ozpin left and a silence filled the room.

“Hello,” she held out a hand, still smiling, “my name is Autumn.  I look forward to our getting to know each other better.  But, umm… can you please fix my hair first?” 

The voice was Pyrrha’s, but the tone wasn’t.  Internally, Jaune winced.

“I’m John.”  He didn’t shake her hand.  “Look, I’m actually pretty tired and not really feeling up for conversation right now.  Do you want me to just cut off the burned sections or do you have a more detailed request?”

“Can you cut it to shoulder length?  It just feels off, having all this hair.”  She ran her fingers through her hair, lifting up a burnt segment.  “It goes all over the place when I’m fighting, then it gets in my eyes and I can’t see…”  She looked at the segment of her hair as if judging it.  “Anyway, I would prefer it to be much shorter if possible.”

“Fine, sit back down.”  John grabbed the scissors from the nearby table and once she was seated, he began to cut Autumn’s hair in silence.  Autumn would break the silence every once in a while, either to ask John a question or tell him a bit about herself.  He didn’t reply to any of them.

“It was weird at first,” Autumn said while John was putting away the equipment that he had just finished using.  “It felt like I couldn’t remember anything. But once I started fighting Cinder and some of my power started coming back, everything started to calm down and I could remember a little bit more about myself.  Nothing super important like my name or faces, but small things.  You know, favorite foods, parties I had attended in the past. I think I’m actually a pretty good dancer.”    

No matter how hard Jaune tried to not believe it, he couldn’t ignore that evidence that the girl sitting in front of him with short, shoulder-length red hair, was not his friend and partner but someone else entirely.

Were it not for Qrow’s training, John wouldn’t have noticed Ozpin reentering the room.  “I hate to interrupt,” the headmaster remained standing by the door to the room as he addressed the pair, “but it is getting late and there is a lot of preparing we have to do in the coming few weeks before I can officially give you two your assignments.”

A short elevator ride and a single corridor later they had arrived at what Ozpin declared as their rooms.  He told Autumn and John that their presence was required the next day, then left the two, saying he had to finish paperwork that had appeared after the attack.

“Well goodnight John,” Autumn gave him a small wave, then reached for the door to her room, “I guess I’ll see you in the morning then.”

“Hey Autumn,” she stopped at the door and turned to face him, “I’ve got a question for you.” He looked directly at her, at the face that was Pyrrha’s and wasn’t. “What do you think about destiny?”

“What do you mean by that, John?”

“Do you think that destiny is something you work towards, or is it something that you can’t escape?  Is it something that you can pick for yourself or is it something that you have no control over?”

Autumn stood for a moment, her face scrunching up in thought.  It didn’t look like she’d come up with an answer anytime soon.  It also didn’t look like his question had sparked of Pyrrha’s memories that might have been in there.  Well, it could wait.

“You don’t have to tell me now Autumn, just something to think about.  I can let you know my answer once you figure yours out.   Now we should both probably get some sleep, we’ve both had a long day.”

“Alright.  Goodnight again, John!” Her thoughtful expression was replaced with a cheerful one as she turned the doorknob and entered into her room.

“Goodnight Pyrrha.” The second those words left his mouth Jaune darted inside his room, closed the door behind himself, and tapped his head against it.  He turned and slid down the door until he was sitting on the floor.  “I’m going to need to stop doing that.”


	3. The Agency

“…It is with great honor and sorrow that we dedicate this memorial to the brave huntsmen and huntresses who gave their lives during the Vale attacks a month ago.  May their sacrifice always be remembered and inspire those that come after them.”

As the last speaker finished and stepped down from the podium, the crowd began to disperse, some moving closer to the memorial, some talking among themselves.  Qrow and Jaune were among the latter group.

“Those council folks sure know how to spin a loss into a celebration, huh.”  Qrow scoffed and then took a swig from that ever-present flask.

All of the names of the fallen hunters were organized by team.  Jaune’s eyes came to rest on two names from the hundreds on the marble wall: ‘Jaune Arc’ and ‘Pyrrha Nikos’.  Seeing Pyrrha’s name on that wall hit him again with the reminder that Pyrrha was gone, replaced by this girl named Autumn.

“It’s kinda surreal, isn’t it?” Jaune said, his eyes scanning through all the names of the fallen hunters, “Going to your own funeral, I mean.  Have you ever done anything like this?”

“I wish kid.”  Qrow chuckled as he took another swig, “It would’ve made things a hell of a lot easier for me.  Could’ve avoided so many angry boyfriends.”  Qrow’s front pocket beeped, causing him to pull out his scroll.  After reading the message he turned to Jaune.  “That was Oz.  He and Autumn are about here for ya.  Ready to head to The Agency?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”  As the two walked towards the road, Jaune asked, “You’re not coming too?”

“Nah,” Qrow held his hands up with a shrug, “Ozzie’s got another job for me.  We got a lead on a White Fang warehouse somewhere on the edge of Vacuo.  The stuff I find there might help you out with the search for Cinder.”  His gaze followed a car that was pulling up.  “But you’ve got other things to worry about, kid.  Looks like your ride is here.”  As the dark-haired man turned to leave, he added over his shoulder, “Just don’t go out there and waste all that training by dying.”  He raised a hand in a quick wave as he strode away.

“John come on! Ozpin’s waiting for you.”  The voice that came from behind him was one he recognized, but the inflection still so foreign to him.  Autumn’s hair—she’d kept it short, although her last haircut had been handled with someone with more skill than Jaune—bounced with every step as she jogged towards over to where Jaune was standing, stopping when she made it in front of him.

In the month since the invasion Ozpin and Autumn had attended numerous meetings with officials from every kingdom to discuss the attack and how to keep disasters of that magnitude from happening again. The result was The Agency, a collection of hunters from each kingdom whose main purpose was to hunt down those who threaten Remnant.  It was an endeavor that would have been unheard of not long ago, but a massive Grimm and terrorist attack tended to change peoples’ views on things.  Many of the students who had participated in what was being called “The Battle of Beacon” had been given the option to join as a form of work study—currently these students made up the Agency’s backbone.

“C’mon, we’re going to miss the briefing.”  Autumn reached out to grab John’s arm in an effort to drag him along faster, but he sidestepped the grab.

“They’re not going to introduce us until the end of the briefing, it won’t matter what time we get there as long as we’re there before it’s over.”  John headed in the direction Autumn came from, while Autumn followed closely behind trying to convince John that it would matter if they were late.

“John,” Professor Ozpin greeted him once he’d climbed into the back of the car and fastened his seatbelt, “How was the ceremony?”  John answered with a shrug.

* * *

 

The travel to The Agency took them through the center of Vale, past the construction to fix everything that was destroyed during the invasion.  The building they entered looked just like any of the other skyscrapers that dotted Vale’s skyline.  Once they entered, they walked straight into the elevator.  Ozpin inserted a key and pressed the numbers ‘6-3-6’, causing the elevator to hum to life and begin to move.

“How far up are we going?” Autumn asked nervously.

“All the way to the top.  The Vault was too far underground for my tastes, so I decided to have The Agency be above ground.”  The professor took a sip from his coffee cup, which he seemingly pulled from nowhere.

The elevator arrived at its destination with a ding, the doors opening to a scene almost identical to the ground floor.  Natural light from glass windows lit up the reception area.

“Follow me.”  Professor Ozpin led the two down a hall, “Miss Adel should be almost done with the briefing by now.”  Autumn muttered, “I told you we were gonna be late,” and attempted to give John a little nudge, but both the nudge and the comment were deftly dodged. 

The trio walked until they reached a set of doors that opened into a small bare room, presumably the annex to what John understood as the briefing room.  “Wait here and I will see if they are ready or not. And John.” Ozpin motioned for John to come closer, he leaned down and spoke in a volume low enough as to not be overheard by Autumn. “When you are introduced it will be as John.  Do not react.  The Agency members have also been instructed not to make any outbursts.  I will pull Autumn away at some point so you can have a few moments alone with them so don’t worry.”  With that Ozpin exited through the door that lead to the briefing room, only to return a few moments later.  “They are ready.”

The briefing room looked less like a conference room and more like a smaller version of a Beacon classroom.  John quickly surveyed the seated and noticed that he recognized every face.  Most were his classmates from Beacon, including Ruby, Blake, Yang, Ren and Nora.  There were also larger monitors featuring the faces of Nebula from team NGDO of Shade, Arslan from team ABRN of Haven, and Flynt from team FNKY of Atlas.  They must have been the representatives from the other hunter academies.  Yet another monitor held the image of Weiss Schnee on what appeared to be a Dust Plane.

“Standing before you now are the current Fall Maiden, Autumn and her Shadow, John.”  John could feel the eyes on them and allowed himself a look at the others.  He was met with varying levels of recognition and surprise.  Nora looked about ready to leap at them, instructions or no.  “They will have their own separate missions for The Agency and at times your missions will be to assist them in theirs.  Should that occur they are the ones in charge and you will follow their orders, got it?”  The beret wearing woman that John recognized as the leader of team CFVY waited for confirmation before continuing.  “Your first missions will be distributed tomorrow, until then you are dismissed.”  Everyone in the room rose from their seats but didn’t make to leave just yet.

Professor Ozpin, as if acting on cue, approached Autumn from behind.  “Autumn, your armor is ready.  You can return to socialize once we retrieve your armor.” Ozpin and Autumn exited the briefing room.  The moment the doors shut, a Nora-shaped torpedo knocked John to the ground.

“JAUNE!” Jaune had been crushed by Nora’s hugs before, but all those seemed like nothing compared to this.  “You’re alive!  We were so worried when we couldn’t find you and Pyrrha.  We-thought-you-were-dead-then-they-said-you-were-dead-and-we-cried-then-Professor-Ozpin-came-into-our-dorm-and-told-us-that-you-guys-were-still-alive-and-we-could-see-you-again-if-we-joined-The-Agency-so-we-did-and YOU’RE HERE! AND YOU’RE OKAY!” She punctuated her speech with another bone-crunching squeeze.

“Nora please, air.” Jaune choked out. 

“Oh. Sorry Jaune!” Nora released her grip and Jaune took deep breaths to refill his lungs.

“What Nora is trying to say,” Ren walked over to Jaune and offered a hand to help him up, “is that we were very concerned for you and Pyrrha’s safety when we couldn’t find you after the attacks.” Jaune took the hand and let his former teammate pull him up.

“Oof.  Sun!”

“Is that really Jaune?” A blonde-haired monkey faunus shoved past Arslan to the forefront of the Haven monitor.  “It is.  Hey Jaune.  Nice scar, makes you look really cool.”

During everyone else’s antics, team RWBY made their way to where Jaune was standing.  Jaune noticed the tiny leader staring at the blade that rested on his back.  He knew where this was going. “You want to check out my new sword Ruby?”  Jaune swore he saw hearts appear in Ruby’s eyes.  She reached up to try and take Jaune’s sword from its sheath to no avail.  “You are never going to get the sword out that way,” he told her, “the sheath only responds to my aura.”  Jaune reached up to the hilt of the sword and let his aura flow down the blade, the sheath opened and freed the weapon.  As he handed it to Ruby, he added, “Careful.  This one’s also a gun.”

“So how much of what happened that day have you all been told?”  Jaune asked the room.  After a moment of silence, Yang answered.

“Only that Pyrrha now has superpowers and that now you’re her handler or something.”

Jaune explained about what he knew happened that day: about Cinder’s attack on Amber to try to take all of the Fall Maiden’s powers, about the aura transfer to put the remaining power inside of Pyrrha which created Autumn, about the training with Qrow in order to become a Shadow, and about their goal to get the remaining power from Cinder.

“That sounds like our uncle all right.  My training was a little bit softer, but that was probably because we are family so he kinda had to be nice to me.” Ruby handed Jaune’s sword back to him and softly asked, “Are you okay?”  Before he could answer, sound was coming from Weiss’ screen.

“Atlas has an advanced and extensive intelligence community, and the Schnee Dust Company is influential enough that I should be able to pull some strings.  If Cinder or any of her allies make any move, we will be able to find out.  I’ll see what information is available once I land.”  Weiss’s voice came from her monitor.

“Thanks Weiss, that means a lot to me.”  Just then, the door reopened and Professor Ozpin entered alongside Autumn.

Autumn had picked up here new armor and was currently wearing it, no doubt to get used to the feel.  The armor had more protection than the armor that Pyrrha had used in the past, with plating covering much of her chest, shoulders, and arms.  It was the same bronze as her old armor with red accents adorning the edges.

“Hey John, d’you think this looks okay?”  Autumn spun in place, showing off her new armor.  “It covers a lot of my body but it still allows me a large range of movement.” 

“As long as it protects you, it could look like scraps of metal.”  Just like that, Jaune Arc was gone and John the Shadow was back.  Slight looks of surprise graced the faces of the others in the room as they saw the person they had just been talking to change with a single sentence.

“I think it looks pretty cool.”  Ruby took the situation in stride, smiling up at Autumn, “I’m more of a weapon girl myself though.  Can I see yours?”  Autumn took off her weapon to show the younger girl, then went about introducing herself to everyone else.

Professor Ozpin gave them a few minutes to mingle before he spoke up.  “I hate to ruin the fun, but Autumn and John have to be leaving now.  They receive their first mission tomorrow as well and have much to prepare before they can leave.”  They said goodbye to everyone—Autumn with a cheerful wave and John with a nod—then made their way back to the car.

“They all seemed so nice,” Autumn gushed as she scooted into the car beside John, “I can already tell that they will be great friends.  Don’t you think so, John?”

“We will be fine on our own.  If they’re assigned to help us then we will be even better off.  Hey Ozpin, just let me out at the memorial and I’ll walk the rest of the way back.”

“Are you sure John? Your mission assignment is tomorrow so you will need to pack and get your rest.” The Professor sounded more concerned than John had expected.

“I’m already packed and I’ll get enough sleep to be fully awake and functional for the mission tomorrow.  So just drop me off.”  John replied still staring out the window.  “I promise I’ll be home before midnight,” he added with a chuckle.

“Alright.”  The car stopped at the memorial, allowing John to exit the vehicle.  Autumn attempted to leave as well but was stopped by John.

“Autumn, no.  I heard you tell Ruby and Nora that you hadn’t even started packing for tomorrow.”

“Fine, just don’t stay out too late.  I know you can handle yourself, but I would hate if something were to happen to you the night before we get our first mission.” Amber replied, first puffing out her cheeks but then ending with a smile.

“Don’t wait up for me.”  The car drove off and John turned, shoved his hands in his pockets, and walked towards the memorial wall.

He approached the wall with reverence, coming to a stop right in front of where his and Pyrrha’s names were engraved.  He reached out and touched the names, looking at them in silence before speaking up.

“Pyrrha.”  He paused, biting his lip, then continued, “I know you wanted to do this, but… I feel like I‘m doing the exact opposite of what you would have wanted.”  Jaune’s hand clenched into a fist as he stared at the wall as if expecting a reply, even though he knew he wouldn’t get one.  “Everything in me wants to hate Autumn, to hate her because she took you away, she took you from your friends, your team.  From me.  But then sometimes, I see a little bit of you coming through and I just forget all that hate.”

Jaune stood in silence for a few more moments then he walked over to the hollow tree he’d been standing beside during the ceremony.  He pulled a single red flower from the inside, then returned to the wall and placed it under where their names were written.

“I made a promise, remember?” Jaune murmured, “To always be there for you.  Well, what I’m doing might not be the smartest thing, or what you would have wanted me to do.  But even if I don’t use that name much anymore, I’m still an Arc; and an Arc never goes back on his word.”

Slowly, Jaune turned and began to walk in the direction of the Vault.  When he got to the edge of the memorial he turned back long enough to say one last thing.

“That’s enough for me to know that this is the right thing to do.”


	4. The Long Road Ahead

_Knock knock knock_.  “John?”  _Knock knock knock._ “John?”

John had expecting to return from his morning training to find an empty hallway, or maybe Autumn leaving her room.  He hadn’t expected to see her standing outside his door with a backpack of supplies at her feet and her weapon—in sword form, as she thought the spear it turned into was too awkward to carry outside of combat—strapped to her hip.

“John, get up!”  She punctuated her statement with another knock.  “We’re getting our first mission today.  Whaddya think it’s going to be?”

“No one is going to come to the door.”  Autumn jumped slightly and spun to face John, who was now standing behind her. “And we won’t be able to go unless you move so I can get into my room.”

“Oh, John.”  She let out a little breath that might have been a chuckle and smiled sheepishly, “I was gonna wake you up, but I guess you don’t need it.” 

“Just let me get my stuff and then we can head to Ozpin’s office to get our mission.”

“Don’t we have to go to The Agency building to get our mission, like the rest of the members from yesterday?”

John shook his head.  “If you had been paying attention, you would have known that our missions are separate and are given to us directly by Ozpin.  Now, can I get my stuff?”  He looked pointedly at the door.

Autumn scooted to the side, but when John entered his room, she followed after him.

“Wow, it’s empty in here,” Autumn jumped past John and perched at the end of the bed, “You need some pictures or something on the walls to brighten things up.”

Jaune had left his room bland on purpose.  He was only using it to sleep after all.  All of his other possessions had been returned to his family after his ‘death’ during the Battle of Beacon. 

“I like my room like this,” he stated flatly as he put on his armor and weapon, “It serves its purpose.”  He picked up his bag and placed the note that Pyrrha left him that was sitting on his desk in his pocket. “You ready to go get our mission?”

Autumn jumped from her seat on the bed and headed towards the door. “Yep, now come on.”

The elevator ride to the Headmaster’s office was silent, apart from Autumn humming a tune that Jaune didn’t recognize.

The Professor was waiting as his desk when the two entered.  “Ah, there you are,” he stood up from his desk and stepped in front of it, “Have a seat and I will brief you on your mission.” As soon as they sat down, a holographic screen appeared behind Ozpin.  It depicted a picture of a dark-skinned woman with green hair.  “This is Emerald Sustrai, one of Cinder’s known accomplices.  You are tasked with finding her and discovering what you can of Cinder’s location and plans.  Her last known location was somewhere outside of Atlas, so you will be meeting with Ms. Weiss Schnee, who will have more precise information regarding Emerald’s location.”

“Anything else we need to know?” Autumn leaned forward intently, staring at the picture as if memorizing it.

“Nothing of too much use, your scrolls have information regarding her fighting style and what we know about her so far.”  Ozpin pressed a button, and Autumn and John’s pockets beeped as the relevant information was uploaded. 

“John,” he added, “there is something that you alone will need to know for this mission.  The information has been sent directly to your scroll so view it at your leisure.  That is all.”  The Professor returned to his seat, “The two of you are dismissed.”

Autumn spoke up as they boarded the elevator.  “This’ll be exciting.  I don’t think I’ve ever been on a Dust Plane before.  What about you, John?” she asked, turning to face him.  John shook his head.

“We are not going to be taking a Dust Plane.  It’d be too dangerous if Cinder and her followers were to know of our mission.  We will be traveling on horseback for better concealment.”

Autumn pouted, but after a moment, shrugged in acceptance.

“After a few days you’ll have better things to think about than the chance to ride a Dust Plane.  Now come on, it’s a long trip to Atlas is a long way from Vale, but we should be able to make decent time.”

* * *

 

The first few days of travel passed nearly uneventfully, aside from the odd patch of Grimm and a rainstorm.  Their clothes were just feeling dry again the day they arrived at a cross roads to find a cart on the side of the road.

“They look stranded,” Autumn said, indicating the cart as it came into sight, “we should see if they need any help.”

John shook his head, “I know you want to help, but we have a mission and a time limit.  If we deviate too much we will lose our chance to find Emerald.”

“This won’t take long.”  Autumn stopped her horse beside the cart, John following with a sigh. “Hello,” Autumn called out, “do you need any help?”

One of the three men by the cart stepped forward and addressed the two.  “Yea,” he nodded his head, “our horse got loose from the cart and ran off.  One of our friends went off after it.  We just got word that he is on his way back, but there are Grimm around so if you could just hang around until he gets back that would be a big help.” 

“Sure thing.”  As Autumn moved to dismount, the other two men reached behind the cart and pulled out weapons.

“Or,” the man said with a smirk, “you could just hand us all your possessions, and we might not have to kill you.”

“You see Autumn?” John sighed, “Bandits.  This is exactly why we shouldn’t have stopped.”  John hopped off his horse and allowed his armor to extend down his arm, forming a gauntlet.  “These guys don’t look like they have unlocked Aura,” he told her as he drew his sword, “so I guess we shouldn’t try and hurt them too much.”

“Is that a challenge pretty boy?” One of the armed bandits spat at John.  “Don’t blame me when you’re lyin’ on the side of the road in a thousand tiny pieces.” 

The armed bandits charged forward to attack John.  The flurry of sword swings were easily blocked by John’s armored forearm.  He knocked one bandit’s legs out from under him, then followed it up with a heavy right-handed punch to the other bandit’s gut.  The fight was finished before the bandit who had talked to them previously had a chance to ready his weapon.

“Alright man, you win.”  The bandit didn’t seem nearly as confident with his companions lying on the ground, “You two can keep goin’ like this never happened, just don’t kill us.”

“We’re not going to kill you.”  Autumn pressed a button on her scroll that called an Agency Bullhead – a vehicle used by The Agency for emergency pickups or for extraction of criminals that were discovered on Agency Missions – to their location.  “We’re just going to watch you until the authorities can make it out here.”

“DIE!”

Everyone jumped and turned to face the source of the sudden yell.  The fourth ‘friend’ that the bandits had referred to had appeared with a large axe and was sprinting towards Autumn.  She reached for her weapon, but before she could pull it out he was upon her.  Or he would have been, had John not leapt in front of her wielding his own blade.  Before anyone could react the blade had pierced straight through the bandit and his body fell limp.

It was then that the Agency Bullhead appeared on the horizon and John silently got back on his horse and left, Autumn following behind him.  The two rode in silence for hours before John finally spoke.

“The abandoned town of Meadow is up ahead, we can set up camp there for the night.”  No immediate response came. “Autumn, did you hear me?”

Autumn nodded, “Yeah.  We’re gonna camp in Meadow.  Wait, why’s there a town this far out, anyway?”

“You’ve heard of Mountain Glenn, right?  Autumn nodded and John went on, “It was a failed attempt at settling beyond the borders of Vale.  Well, before that, there were other attempts at smaller settlements.  They did alright for a while, but none of them lasted.  There’re plenty between here and Atlas, and the buildings should be intact enough for us to use them as a shelter whenever we run across one.  Actually,” he added idly, “those four we met earlier might’ve been coming from Meadow.”

Autumn actually winced at the mention of the bandits from earlier.  “Did you really have have to kill that bandit?  You said yourself that they didn’t have unlocked auras, so there weren’t that big of a threat.”

As she asked, a cluster of sad-looking buildings appeared on the horizon.  “I’ll answer you after we have set up camp.”  John told her, and the two rode into Meadow. 

When they reached the village, John picked a central building and entered it.  He dropped his bag on the floor with a small thud then emptied his pockets.  “You set up the sleeping bags and start a small fire,” he told Autumn, “I’ll check the surroundings to make sure there are no Grimm still hanging around.”

John left the building and found his way to a small creek that ran just outside the town.  Now that he was alone, he finally let the heaviness from earlier hit him.  The images flashed before his eyes, the life disappearing from the eyes of the bandit and the body that had been full of vigor previously falling limp. Jaune’s stomach rioted, and he doubled over and vomited.  He’d known in the back of his head that he would likely have to take a life at some point in his life—being a Huntsman was a dangerous job, being a Shadow even more so—but he had never expected it to be like that.  He finished emptying the contents of his stomach, he cleaned himself off with water from the creek, then took the time to do the standard patrol around the town before he returned to the building that they were using as a shelter for the day.  When he returned, he saw Autumn bending over his bag and picking up a beat-up piece of paper that was sitting on top of it.  He quickly strode over to her and before she could open the paper he grabbed her wrist and snatched it out of her hand.

“Don’t look at that,” he snapped, shoving the paper back in his pocket, “It’s personal and nothing you should be touching.”

“I’m sorry!” Autumn held her hands up apologetically, “I just saw that you look at that paper every night and I wanted to know why it was so important to you.  I wanted to know more about what makes you, well, you.”  She was fumbling with her words, trying not to make John angrier.

“All you need to know,” John growled, his face hard, “is that my job is to keep you safe while we try to find Cinder and get the rest of the Maiden powers back.  I take that job very seriously and I proved today I’m pretty good at it.”

“Oh, so that’s it?”  Autumn’s hands were clenched into fists at her sides, “I’m just a job to you?  Is that why you look like you’re sitting on a cactus whenever I talk to you?  John,” she stood up straight, looking angrier than John had seen her, “I am the Fall Maiden. I can handle myself.  If you’re so uncomfortable around me, you can leave.  I don’t need you to be my Shadow, I am strong enough to not need any Shadow.”

“No, you’re not.  You just think you are.  That bandit earlier was going to hit you before you could even react, then we would be matching.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

John dropped his sword and armor on the ground next to his bag and swiftly removed his shirt and turned away from Autumn.  “This.”  Across John’s back was a single scar.  “I got this while training with Qrow, the last Fall Maiden’s Shadow.  He was going easy on me.  I thought I was strong enough to handle him in a real fight.  I was wrong.”

Autumn stared at the jagged red scar that reached from John’s left shoulder to slightly above his waist, her jaw dropping.

As John put his shirt back on and turned around, Autumn sighed.  “Alright.  Maybe one day I’ll be strong enough to not need a Shadow, but until then I guess we are stuck with each other.  And maybe we’ll be friends by then too.”

 “Maybe.  I’ll take first watch tonight.  Get some sleep, we lost a bit of time today with those bandits and we will have to make it up tomorrow.”

Autumn hunkered down on the floor, and after a while her light breathing was the only sound in the room.  Jaune was sitting on a chair he’d salvaged, looking out the window.

“I’m so sorry Pyrrha.”  He sighed and rested his head in his hands, “I shouldn’t have snapped like that.  It’s just…I couldn’t keep you safe at Beacon.  I’ve learned so much since then, but it’s so hard…”  Teardrops hit the paper in his lap—the same paper that Autumn had been looking at earlier.  He carefully folded it up and slipped it back into his pocket.


	5. Between a Rock and a Hard Place

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in updates! I'm posting two chapters tonight to make up for it. Also, as of next week, we'll be caught up to where the story is on ff.net. Ideally, that means the story will be updating here every other Sunday.

The next few days of travel passed in silence, broken only by the sound of the horses and Autumn’s occasional attempts at conversation.

“Look, John,” she finally said one sunny afternoon, “I know you’re mad that I was going through your stuff and looked at that paper.  I’m sorry.  It’s just… We’re supposed to be traveling together and protecting each other, and you’re still pretty much a stranger to me.”  The word ‘stranger’ hurt Jaune just a little, but John couldn’t let Autumn catch on.

“There isn’t much more to me than you already know,” John admitted with a shrug, “everyone has things that they don’t want anyone to know about and I am no exception.  I mean, you should’ve seen me asking Qrow questions during our training.”

Autumn didn’t have anything to say to that, so the silence resumed.  It was a few minutes before she tried again to start a conversation.

“Can you at least tell me what’s so important about that piece of paper?  You acted like it was really valuable.”

John slowed his horse, allowing Autumn to catch up.  While she was moving alongside him, he tucked his hand into his pocket, thumb stroking the folded note.

“It’s all I have left of someone who was very important to me,” he explained, “Having it helps me remember that she was real.”  John let out a soft sigh “I’m not going to allow myself to forget about her.”  He turned his face to meet Autumn’s “That’s why this ‘piece of paper’ is so important.”

John turned his attention back to the road ahead of them.  Hopefully that was enough to keep her quiet about the paper, at least until they reached Atlas.  Then they would have better things to worry about.

“So, who was she?”  She really wouldn’t leave this alone, would she?  Hopefully this next answer would end her line of questioning.

“She was someone I cared about.  A lot.  But I didn’t realize just how much until I lost her.  Oh, but,” he held a hand up as he clarified, “it’s not like she died, or got married or anything like that, she just left, and I haven’t been able to see her in a long time.”

He was right; after that Autumn fell silent.  She was biting her lip and looking around nervously, as if she was trying to think of something to say.  However, they had become too preoccupied in their discussion to notice that the skies were growing darker.

“John,” Autumn pointed up at the clouds, “the weather’s looking pretty bad.  We might want to find shelter, just in case.”

As they passed over the crest of a hill, John scanned the area in front of them.  There was a cave in the distance, near enough to get to quickly and hopefully large enough to shelter the two of them until the weather blew over.

“There’s a cave over there that should work,” he said, pointing to it, “We can rest up there until everything clears up.  This weather shouldn’t last too long.”

When they got close to the cave, they climbed off their horses, grabbed their bags, and began to head for the cave.  Unfortunately, it was just then that the bad weather decided to hit.  A bolt of lightning and a roar of thunder caused the horses to rear up in a panic, then turn and run away.  Then the downpour started.  Autumn turned to chase after the horses, but John put a hand on her shoulder.

“The horses will be fine,” he told her, “For now we need to get into the cave.”

Autumn hesitated for a moment, but nodded and ran into the cave.  It was large enough to keep them out of the rain, but not so large as to be completely dark in the back.  John set his pack on the floor of the cave, pulled out a pinch of Fire Dust in and used it to start a small fire so they could warm up and dry their damp clothes.  They stayed there for a while, but the thunder still boomed, the lightning still flashed, the rain still fell, and it didn’t look like it would stop anytime soon.  The awkward silence from before returned with a vengeance.

“Hey John, I know I have been asking you a lot of questions about you lately, and I’m sorry about this.  But there’s something that’s been nagging at me for a while, and I think you might be able to help.  It feels really important.”  John didn’t say anything but turned from the cave opening to face.  Autumn took a deep breath, then asked, “Does the name ‘Jaune’ mean anything to you?”

Jaune froze.  She remembered his name?  What was he supposed to do?  He couldn’t just tell her.  Not here.  Not like this.  John replied after thinking for a while “I, ah, can’t say that the name rings any bells.  Sorry.  Why do you ask, did you hear that name somewhere?”

“Not really,” she said, shaking her head, “it’s just a name that kind of pops up in my memories sometimes.  I told you about my memories before right?  About how all I really see are featureless masses that appear to be people?”  Autumn waited for John to nod before continuing, “Well, there’s a few names that pop up in my memories sometimes.  There’s a couple of names I’m pretty sure are the names of my parents because they are always said together.  Then there’s this ‘Jaune’ person.  I don’t know why that is the only other name that I can remember though, so I was hoping you maybe knew someone with that name.  I’d like to know why he was so important to me.”

The flames from the dust had started to weaken so John stood from his position at the mouth of the cave to go grab another pinch of dust to add to the flame.  Just then, a crashing sound came from where he had just been sitting.  The cave went dark and the flames extinguished.  Quickly, John pulled his Scroll from his pocket to see what was going on.  The front of the cave had collapsed, trapping the two inhabitants.  John was going to step forward to assess the damage, but he was stopped by a viselike grip on his arm.  He turned and was just able to make out the face of a frightened Autumn staring back at him in the dark.

“You can’t be telling me that you are scared of the dark now can you?” John asked as he looked down at Autumn.

Autumn shook her head.  “It’s not that.  It’s just… we’re trapped in here.  I really don’t like being stuck in small spaces.”

“But you were fine in the elevator,” John pointed out.

“There was a door there.  I knew we could get out.”

John turned back to his scroll and tapped the screen, activating its built-in distress beacon.  The signal would reach back to The Agency headquarters and they would dispatch the closest agents to their location for rescue.  With that done, John sat down on the ground, guiding with Autumn down with him.

“John?” Autumn said with a slight fear in her voice, “Can you use a bit of that Fire Dust to start a fire? If I can see, maybe I’ll feel a little better.”

John shook his head, “Sorry, but it seems like the cracks in the rocks at the entrance are allowing just enough oxygen in here for us to breathe easily.  I don’t want to risk us running out if I were to start a fire.”  Autumn whimpered at the idea of running out of oxygen, prompting John to say, “Sorry.  Anyway, I should have a flashlight or something in my bag for us to use.”

John reached into his bag and pulled out a small electric-powered lamp, then placed it in between himself and Autumn and cut it on.  Autumn took a couple of deep breaths and lessened her grip on John’s arm, but she still stayed sitting close enough to him that their shoulders were barely touching.  They sat for a couple minutes touching at the shoulders while Autumn stared into the light of the lamp.

“Hey, John?” she asked after a few more moments of silence, “Can you tell me what she was like?”

“Where did this come from?”

“I was going to ask you earlier, but the storm kinda distracted me. But I think talking about it now might help me keep my mind off of being trapped in here.  So what was she like?” She leaned forward, interested, “She must’ve been really special for you to hold onto her memory so strongly.”

“Why do you even want to know?”  John really didn’t want to answer Autumn’s question, but if it was taking her mind off of her fear, he would do it.

“I just want to know what kind of girl could win the heart of…” She paused trying to find the words, “well, of someone like you.”

“Well,” John paused to try to find the words “she was beautiful, and not in the way you think.  I mean, yeah, she was gorgeous, but she was also one of the kindest people I’ve ever met.  She was always putting the needs of everyone around her above those of herself, which is honestly the reason why she left.  She wasn’t claustrophobic though,” he said, giving her a little nudge.

“Hey, are you making fun of me?”  Autumn giggled.  “I thought you were above something as low as that.  Is there anything else?  What did she look like?  Do you have any pictures of her?”  Autumn’s questions came faster now.

John shook his head.  “I don’t really want to talk about her anymore.”  John grabbed his bedroll from his bag and laid it down where he had been sitting.  “I’m going to get some sleep.  You might want to too.  By the time we wake up help will have arrived to get us out of here.” 

John turned to face away from where Autumn was sitting and tried to get comfortable.  He could feel Autumn shuffling around to find her bedroll and when she found it she placed it directly beside his, then without warning he felt a weight pressed against his back.  She spoke before he could.

“Is it alright if I sleep next to you?  It’s kind of stupid, but it makes me feel less afraid if I know there is someone else right beside me. I like to know that I’m not trapped in this small space by myself.”

John didn’t say a word, but he didn’t try to move her either.  Hopefully Autumn would just assume he was asleep and then go to sleep herself.  Autumn dozed off first but John wasn’t that far behind, he was tired, although it was more from talking about Pyrrha than it was from the travel.

* * *

 

“JOHN!  AUTUMN! ARE YOU TWO IN THERE?”

The voices had caught John’s attention.  He sat up from his bedroll and walked towards the collapsed entrance of the cave, causing Autumn to stir and awaken as well.

“We’re here.” He called through the rock wall, “We just can’t get these rocks out of the way.”

“Don’t worry about it John.  HEY YANG, THEY’RE IN HERE!”  The voice called out in a direction that John could not determine.  That was unmistakably Ruby’s voice.  And by the sound of things, her sister was there too.

“Hey John.”  A second voice called out from the other side of the rubble. “How deep is that cave?”

“Not very, but it’s wider than the entrance has you to believe.”

“Good.  Alright, you’ve got about thirty seconds.  Pick a side wall and stick to it.  I’ll blast you guys right out of there.”

“Yang, what are you talking abou-”

“Twenty-nine.  Twenty-eight…”

John sighed, although he was smiling.

 _She’s being as brash as ever, glad to see that some things don’t change_ , John thought as he dashed over to where Autumn was.  He grabbed her along with their stuff and moved to the side of the cave.  Right as they reached the side a blast came from the cave entrance and light flooded in along with the dust from the explosion.  As the dust settled John could make out two figures, a smaller caped figure standing a safe distance back, and the fiery blonde that had just punched away a wall of rubble.

That was when John noticed something.  Yang had her right arm extended, but instead of a closed fist with Ember Celica there was hole that was quickly covered by what looked to be Yang’s hand.  Looks like some things had changed after all.


	6. Nightmares

“Hey Yang,” John said as he picked up his bedroll, “could you maybe warn us better the next time you try to solve a cave-in with another cave-in?”  They were almost done getting their stuff together now; they would be back on the road in a few minutes.

“Hey, I told you to get to the side,” Yang said with a shrug, “Besides, you should be thanking us.  We were still in the air when we got the distress signal.  We had to jump.”

“I found your horses!” Ruby’s voice came from outside the cave, “Looks like they didn’t run too far off.”

“Shortcake’s okay?” Autumn shoved her still-unpacked belongings into a bag then ran out of the cave towards the sound of Ruby’s voice.

“Shortcake?” Yang asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Autumn named her horse.” John put the last item into his bag and stood up.

“Come on,” he said briskly, “Autumn and I lost of lot of time with that cave-in.  We need to get to Atlas quickly.” Yang nodded and the two exited the cave to meet up with their partners.

When they exited the cave, they saw Ruby standing by Autumn’s horse—Shortcake, apparently—and Autumn standing by John’s.  Ruby waved her sister over and said, “C’mon, Yang, hop on!”

“Wait, what?” John wasn’t quite sure where Ruby was going with this.

“It was my idea,” Autumn explained, “we don’t have a quick way for all four of us to travel.  I was thinking we could double up on the horses, that way we don’t have to go slow enough to stay with whoever’s walking.”

That made sense, mostly.  “Fine,” John said with a nod, “but the extra weight on both of the horses means we’ll only be able to ride for 2 hours at most.  After that we’ll have to let the horses rest.  At that point, we may as well just set up camp.  We’ll already be close enough to Atlas at that point.”

John mounted his horse and reached his hand out to help Autumn up.  As they started riding Autumn wrapped her arms around John’s waist to keep herself balanced.  Jaune did not know how to react, but he managed to keep a stoic face for the remainder of the ride.

* * *

 

The ride passed uneventfully.  Once they finished setting up camp, they all ended up sitting around the campfire.  Autumn was asking Ruby and Yang questions faster than they could be answered.

“So what’s flying in a dust plane like?  I always wanted to ride in one.  Well, I mean, I kinda remember riding in one in the past but it’s hazy.  I told John that we should have taken one to get to Atlas faster, but he said that it would be safer on horseback.”

“Wait, hold up.” Yang held up a hand to interrupt Autumn’s rambling. “Why did John say you couldn’t take a Dust Plane to Atlas?” Yang threw a sideways glance towards John, a slight smirk on her face.

Autumn sat up straighter and said in her best imitation of John, “Because I am the Fall Maiden so any form of public transportation would be dangerous and would run the risk of putting myself and innocent civilians in danger.” 

Ruby and Yang looked at John and then to each other and giggled.

“What’s so funny about that?” Autumn asked with a confused look on her face.

“The Agency has private Dust Planes that are flown by Agency members.  You could’ve flown safely.  The real reason John didn’t want you two to take a Dust Plane is…”

“Yang, don’t.” John interjected, but Ruby picked up right where her sister left off.

“…because he gets airsick really easily.  That’s how we met him, John threw up and some of it got on Yang’s shoes.”  After Ruby’s revelation, Autumn stared incredulously at John for a moment, then burst into a fit of giggles.

“Really?” She looked at John for a moment as if seeing him in a whole new light, then turned back to Ruby, “Is there anything else has John neglected to tell me?”

The man in question sighed and stood up, “Well if you’re just going to humiliate me, I’m going to go ahead and get some sleep.  Ruby, you take first watch and have Autumn second.  I’ll go after and Yang will have the last watch.  Now if you will excuse me.”  John made his way over to his bedroll and the sounds of the girls talking lulled him to a slumber.

* * *

 

When John woke up, it was not to the shaking of Autumn to get him ready for his watch but on his own.  This wasn’t the first time a nightmare had woken him up, and he’d be shocked if it was the last.

He slightly turned his head to gauge just how long he had been asleep.  He saw an outline of Autumn’s figure sitting in the warm glow of the fire.  There was his answer.  John turned away from the fire and laid there until Autumn rose from her seat and ‘woke’ him up for his watch.  He sat up to let her know he was awake, then told her to go ahead and get some sleep.

“G’night John, remember Yang has the last watch.” Autumn called out as John took a seat by the fire with his back facing the sleeping sisters.  He nodded in acknowledgement, then sat still as Autumn drifted to sleep.

Only after he could tell that she was fast asleep did Jaune murmur, “Sweet Dreams.”

* * *

 

As soon as Yang awoke, she knew it was much later than it should have been.  Checking her scroll confirmed that John had not woken her up when he was supposed to for her watch shift.  She got out of her bedroll and made her way to where John was sitting by the fire.

“Autumn warned us that you might do this.”  Yang gave John no warning, just plopping herself down next to him.  “She isn’t blind you know, she noticed that you aren’t sleeping much.  She told us that you’re always getting up early for training.”

“I wish I could sleep longer,” Jaune sighed, “but I always get the same dream and wake up at the same spot.  Well, nightmare’s probably a better word.” 

“Jaune, what happens in these nightmares?  Maybe telling someone about it will help.”

“It always starts the same way,” Jaune held his hands together in front of him and stared into the fire. “The day after your Singles Match we—Pyrrha and I—walked around the school grounds.  We ended up just sitting in front of the cafeteria.  In the dream, Pyrrha asks me the same question she did that day: ‘Do you believe in destiny?’”  He cradled his head in his hands, “Damnit, Yang, I should’ve realized!  I should’ve known something was wrong… we could’ve avoided all this!”  Jaune looked at Yang frantically.

“Jaune.” Yang placed her artificial hand on his shoulder. “Just continue with this nightmare of yours.”

“After Pyrrha asks that question, everything goes quiet.  I can’t hear what I say, but I know that I said the exact same thing I told Pyrrha that day.  I know because the moment she uses her semblance to shove me into the wall and runs away, the scene changes to inside the Vault.  I can see Pyrrha standing at the end of what feels like an endless hallway.  I run down, passing duplicate pods, all of which containing Amber, the last Fall Maiden.  But then,” Jaune let out a choked sob, “I never get to her in time.  When I reach Pyrrha, she’s gone, and Autumn’s there.”  Jaune sat in silence for a few seconds.  “That’s when I wake up.  I think Autumn’s about to say something but I always wake up before I hear it.  I guess subconsciously I don’t want to hear what she has to say.”

Yang opened her mouth to say something but John kept talking.

“I should have told her something differently then, or stayed with her during the Battle of Beacon.  Then none of us would be in this situation!  Pyrrha would still be here!”

“You have to stop blaming yourself for everything bad that happens.”  Yang stood up and placed herself in front of Jaune.  “Maybe things would’ve been different, maybe they wouldn’t.  For all you know, they could’ve been worse.  But you’re here and you have to deal with the way things are now.  Anyway,” she added, “that doesn’t really explain why you didn’t wake me up for my watch.”

Jaune turned his head towards the sleeping figure of Autumn.  “Whenever she’s sleeping, all I can see is Pyrrha.  It feels like none of this happened.  I just get lost in thought, I guess.”

“Seriously, Jaune, as awful as it sounds, you have to accept what happened.  Pyrrha chose to go through with that Aura Transfer, just like you chose to train with Uncle Qrow to become her Shadow.”  Yang paused, still staring down at Jaune.  “Who am I kidding?” Yang returned to her seat beside Jaune with a thump.  “Blake didn’t listen when I told her, so why should you?”  Yang idly started rubbing her artificial arm.

Jaune noticed this and asked, “Hey Yang, since I told you about my nightmare, you mind telling me about your little upgrade there?” 

“It was a mistake,” she answered.  Now it was Yang’s turn to cradle her head in her hands.  “You know how bad it was during the battle.  The White Fang were everywhere.  I was just trying to find anyone and well… I found Blake, just as she was being stabbed.  I got angry and ran in to punch the guy responsible, then suddenly my arm was just gone.  I think that was when I passed out from the pain.  I just know that when I woke up I was sitting in a hospital room, and Blake was next to me.”  Yang took a moment to compose herself, then slowly raised her head.  “When she realized I was conscious, she wouldn’t stop apologizing.  Even after I told her that it was my fault, that I should have been smarter in engaging.”  Yang turned to face Jaune. “She hardly listened.  She said it was all because she’d been a coward.”  Yang curled up her legs and wrapped her arms around them, “Blake’s changed, Jaune.  Not like Pyrrha did.  I wish I could blame it on something like an Aura transfer.  She’s said she’s stopped running, but it’s more than that.  It’s like she’s hunting down the White Fang.  I’m scared for her.”  Yang’s artificial hand clenched into a fist.

“Yang, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Yang shook her head and stretched back out, “at least I got this cool arm out of it.  Ruby’s super jealous, she wants one so bad but there is no way I’m letting her lose any limbs, not when I have something to say about it.”  Jaune could tell Yang was trying to act like she had before the battle.

After that, conversation shifted to other members of the Agency.  After a while Jaune asked another question.

“I heard you all stayed awake for quite some time after I went to sleep.  What exactly did you talk about?  If you don’t mind me asking.”

“You, mostly.  You haven’t really told Autumn much about yourself.”

“You didn’t give too much away did you?  You know we have no idea of knowing exactly what would happen to her if she were to remember everything, right?”

“Don’t worry. We kept all those details basic and vague.  It was much harder when she changed the subject on us.”

Jaune looked at Yang with a quizzical look on his face.

“She asked about ‘the girl that John can’t seem to forget’.”  Yang took a pause before continuing. “We didn’t tell her much, just the basic stuff.  We told her that was really a topic to talk about with you.”

The two of them sat in silence for what felt like hours before Yang spoke again.

“Autumn really cares about you.  Don’t you think you should at least try to give her a chance?”

“Yang, you know it’s not that easy.  Losing her hurt far more that I thought was possible and I don’t know when I will be able to move on.  If I’m able to move on at all.”

If Jaune had been more focused on his surroundings instead of searching through his bag for more Fire Dust to stoke the flames, he might have heard a small gasp come from the direction of Autumn’s sleeping form.

* * *

 

By midday the next day the group had made their way into Atlas.  Yang and Ruby hopped off of Shortcake and said their goodbyes to John and Autumn.

“We have to finish up our mission real quick, it’s just a small pickup from a local shop.  We’ll meet you at the Schnee Dust Tower.”   Ruby handed the reins back over to Autumn.  “I’m not missing the chance to see Weiss for the first time in weeks.  Come on Yang.”


	7. Heart to Heart

“It’s good to see you,” surprisingly, Weiss greeted the two with a small smile, and then beckoned for them to follow.  “Come with me.” 

The white-haired girl led John and Autumn into a private conference room down the hall from Weiss’ office on the top floor of the Schnee building.  She stood in front of the lone table in the room and motioned for her guests to take a seat.  Once John and Autumn were seated Weiss cut off the lights and a holographic image of Emerald and a map of Atlas appeared from the table.

“I’ll just get straight to the point here.  Emerald has been… evasive.  She’s been seen in various places around Atlas, but recently, from what we can tell, she’s kept to the forest to the west.” Weiss flipped through slides with images of Emerald taken from security cam footage.  “We theorize that she likely has a base of operations somewhere in the forest.”

“Why is she snooping around Atlas so much?” John asked.

“The Schnee Dust Company is working on a new device.”  The lights came back up and Weiss folded her hands in front of her, “It takes the user’s semblance and amplifies it far beyond what the user is normally capable of.  It’s only in the prototypical stage, but results have been promising so far.  It most likely has something to do with that.”

 “So we go out there, find her and take her back to The Agency.”  Autumn shrugged, “Sounds easy enough.”

“It’s never that easy Autumn,” John said with a shake of his head, “Emerald won’t be easy to just ‘take back to the Agency.’  She’s in Cinder’s inner circle and a very strong fighter.  Underestimating her is an easy way to get hurt.”  John paused for a moment, then continued. “We’ll figure out a plan and head out in a few days.  Thank you Weiss.  I don’t know what we would have done without this information.”

Before Weiss could reply a red blur burst through the door, flattening her. “WEISS!!!” a familiar high-pitched voice shriek, “I MISSED YOU!”

“Gah, Ruby stop,” Weiss was trying to free herself to no avail, “I just talked to you on your scroll!”  She managed to shove the younger girl off of her and stood up, brushing herself off, “Take Autumn and show her around Atlas for a bit, there is something I need to ask John.”

Ruby looked confused for a moment, but then she looked between the two and comprehension dawned on her face.  “Come on Autumn,” she said, holding out a hand, “I wanna introduce you to my friend’s dad.”

Ruby dragged Autumn out of the room almost as fast as she got there.  Awkward silence reigned for a moment until John finally spoke.

“Weiss, what is this…?”

“Jaune.” Weiss interrupted “Jaune I just want to tell you that I’m sorry.”

“What?”  Jaune didn’t know what he had been expecting, but it wasn’t this.  “What’re you talking about Weiss?  Sorry about what?”

“About how I acted while we were at Beacon, before this whole thing happened.”  The almost clinical tone of the briefing was gone; this might’ve been the most earnest Jaune had ever heard Weiss sound.  “When you approached me, I thought that you were like every other guy who showed any interest in me.  You know, only interested because of my name and my family’s money.  I was a jerk to you for no reason, but at the dance, you still got Neptune to talk to me.”  She took a couple of steps closer to him.

“Weiss, stop.”  Jaune put a hand on her shoulder, “You don’t need to apologize for anything.  If anything, I should be apologizing to you.  I was an idiot.  You weren’t interested in me and I ignored that.  I should have noticed just how many people I was hurting while chasing after you.  You deserve someone better that I was, you deserve Neptune.”

“That’s just it Jaune,” Weiss replied with a shake of her head and a step back, “I’m not sure if Neptune even cares about me.  You saw him during the tournament, you know, when he was flirting with those NDGO girls.”

“So is this what this is all about?  You’re really asking me for relationship advice?”  Jaune couldn’t help it.  He burst out laughing.

“Hey!” Weiss looked almost offended, “Jaune, this isn’t funny!  I don’t want to lose him, but I’m not sure if he even still wants to be with me.”

“Weiss look,” Jaune gestured in front of him, “As far as I know, Neptune hasn’t had a serious relationship before.  He tries really hard to be cool, but I don’t think he knows how to be in a serious relationship.  Just be patient with him, or tell him your concerns.  Nothing good comes from holding back what you want to say.  Believe me,” he added bitterly, “I would know.”

Jaune made his way to the door, but before he could get there Weiss grabbed his arm.

“Wait, Jaune, I want to ask you one last thing.  Back when we were at Beacon, if things had gone…” Weiss pauses for a moment before continuing “differently, would we be in this situation right now?”

“I’m not sure I follow.”

“I mean, if I’d given you a chance.  Do you think you would have still chosen to be a Shadow?”

After a brief pause John shook his head, eyes closed and a small smirk forming.  “I doubt any of this would have been different.  Even if we had started dating at Beacon I still would’ve been there for my partner.  Now, if you don’t have anything else to ask, we might need to make sure that Ruby didn’t blow anything up.”

“Again, you mean?”

“Yeah, again.  Although wasn’t that technically your fault?”

* * *

 

“Ruby, would you care to explain how my room got destroyed?”  ‘Destroyed’ was a bit of an exaggeration, but the room did look pretty trashed.  Books, clothes, and Dust vials were lying in various places around the room and one or two pieces of furniture looked freshly broken.

“Well you see Weiss,” Ruby grinned sheepishly, “the funniest thing happened.  Autumn claimed that she could mess with Yang’s hair without her noticing.”  She looked over the damage, “She kinda couldn’t.”

“Ruby!” Autumn protested, “You’re the one who told me that you could pluck one of your sister’s hairs and get away before she noticed.”  Autumn pointed at the younger girl, trying desperately to clear her name.  Yang, meanwhile, was calming down just enough to notice that Weiss and John walked in together.

“Hey Weiss-cream,” she said with a wave, “does this mean that Neptune has something to worry about?”

 “Yang… no.” John placed his fingers on the bridge of his nose.

“What’s this about something to worry about?”  Autumn perked up at the possibility of finding out more about her Shadow.

“It’s not that big a deal.”  Now it was John’s turn to protest, “Weiss and I had a bit of a history, but that’s over and now we’re friends.”

“Oh really?” Yang snickered, “That’s not how I remember it.”

“But that is how it is.  If you girls need me, I’ll be in my room figuring out how to trap Emerald.”

With that John exited Weiss’ room, but not without hearing a little more of what the girls had to say.

“Come on Weiss, it will be just like a big sleepover.  Pleeease?” He could practically hear the puppy dog eyes in Ruby and Autumn’s voices.  He smiled.  For a moment, anyway, it felt like the battle had never happened and they were just students again.  If only it could’ve stayed that way.


	8. Forest Confrontation

“Make sure you two stay safe out there.”  Ruby shook a finger at John as if she was a scolding mother, “We don’t want to have to respond to your distress beacon again.”

“Okay, okay, but only if you promise to make sure our horses make it back in one piece.”  John gave a lopsided grin, “I’ll just have to suffer the ride back to Vale after we find Emerald.”  Autumn giggled.

John and Autumn were standing in front of Ruby, Yang, and Weiss saying their goodbyes before they made their way out of Atlas and into the forest to try and capture Emerald.  John adjusted his bag and weapons before turning and walking towards the gate that lead out of the town.  As Autumn was turning to follow, she was interrupted by Weiss.

“Autumn, wait!”  Weiss approached the taller girl and put a hand on her shoulder, then spoke softly, “Remember what I told you the other night.”

“You mean the thing about John actually caring for me more than he expresses?”  Autumn glanced over her shoulder, just to make sure that her Shadow wasn’t listening in.

“Yes, that.  Just remember that John chose to be your Shadow and he went through hell to make sure that he would be strong enough.  Just give him a little bit of time to open up to you.”

“Alright.”  Autumn stepped towards Weiss and embarrassed her with a large hug. “Thanks Weiss!  And don’t worry, I’ll keep John out of trouble.”  She jogged off after him, waving over her shoulder and calling, “See ya.”

By the time she caught up with him, they were out of the city proper and were beginning to see the end of signs of civilization.

“Thanks for waiting up for me,” she attempted a joke, only to be met with a serious answer.

“As far as I’m concerned, you’re putting yourself in more danger if you lag behind.”  He spared a glance from the path ahead at her, “Maybe you should try to keep up with me next time.”

Autumn nodded her head and smiled as soon as John turned to continue walking.  Maybe Weiss was right.  If nothing else, he did seem to be softening towards her—once she learned to understand what he meant when he talked.

* * *

 

Hours of fruitless searching later, Autumn and John agreed that it was getting too dark to effectively continue.  Based on recon performed by Atlas intelligence and their personal observations, the area had little to no Grimm activity, so they figured they could camp in the open with minimal risk.

“Alright then,” John said once they’d found a good spot to camp, “I’ll go see if I can’t find any water or firewood nearby.  Just set up the tents and get a fire-pit built for once I come back.’

“You got it boss.”  Autumn saluted jokingly.

While she got started with her tasks, he shouldered his weapon and headed into the forest.

Right around the time Autumn was finishing with the tents, she heard footsteps behind her.

“Fire-pit’s dug and ready to go!” she announced cheerfully, “Did you find any wo…?” The question died on Autumn’s lips as she turned around and saw the decidedly-not-John figure standing before her.

Instead of John, Autumn was met with a small woman with pink and brown hair holding a parasol over her shoulder.  The mystery woman smirked at Autumn, letting out a small noise that may have been a chuckle.

“Hey, who a…”

Before Autumn could finish her question the mystery woman charged at her with her parasol collapsed and held as if it were a sword.  Autumn reacted quickly and rolled sideways towards the spot where she’d set down her weapon.  Within seconds, she was standing again, the point of her spear leveled at her attacker.  Autumn blocked another strike, then jumped back, creating a distance between the two of them.  She tried again to ask her question, with more success this time.

“Who are you?”

The mystery assailant’s only response was another smirk, then a lunge in Autumn’s direction.

This time Autumn was ready.  She charged forward to meet her attacker head on.  However, the attacker took advantage of her horizontal slash to jump and flip so she landed behind Autumn.  She felt an impact on the small of her back and whirled to meet its source, assuming a defensive stance.  Who was this woman?  Was she somehow affiliated with their target?  And where had John gone?

* * *

 

While Autumn had been setting up the tent, John had been gathering firewood.  As he was walking back, a bundle of wood in his arms, he heard the sound of fighting in the distance.  John froze, the wood tumbling to the ground.  No.  Not again.  Before he could think, he was running full-speed towards the camp.  But he was interrupted by figure stepping out from behind a tree and positioning herself right in front of him.        

The figure was of a woman with tan skin and green hair.  He recognized her, easily.

“Emerald.” He didn’t have time for this.  Pyrrha—Autumn—was in danger.  He pulled his sword out and leveled it at her, ready to knock her out of his way.  But she didn’t respond aggressively.  Her weapons weren’t even out.  Instead, she just sighed.

“Hey,” the green-haired woman crossed her arms and leaned back against the tree she’d just jumped down from, “I know what we’re ‘supposed’ to be doing, but you can go ahead and put that away.”  She followed John’s gaze towards their camp and added, “The Maiden’s fine. Neo’s just distracting her so she won’t be able to find out about this.”

Distracting her?  What was that supposed to mean?  And why wasn’t Emerald putting up any kind of fight?  Were it not for his training, he may have dropped his sword in confusion.  Instead, he just lowered it slightly.

“What are you talking about?”  John hadn’t dropped his guard.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Emerald groaned as she placed a hand over her eyes.  “Did Ozpin not give you a message, letter, anything that told you what was actually going on here?”

John paused.  Oh, that was right.  Ozpin had left him a message on his scroll before they left.  Somehow, he’d never gotten around to checking it.  He quickly opened the message and read over it.

“Understand that even though this mission states that you are to capture the target, that amount of effort will not be needed.  Before Cinder and her group fled, Ms. Sustrai left us a message stating her desire to desire to defect from Cinder’s faction and has agreed to feed us information in exchange for allowing Cinder to believe that she is discovering information from us (False information that we are knowingly providing her).  The true mission is to receive her latest information and transport it back to The Agency HQ.  Do not let this information out, the only ones who know about this arrangement are the higher-ups in The Agency and yourself.”  Well, that explained a lot. 

“So what, you just want to do the right thing all of a sudden?”  John sheathed his sword, but he still remained on guard as he approached Emerald. 

“Believe what you want.”  Emerald shrugged and stepped forward, holding out her scroll.  “Here’s what I got.  Hold out the scroll you were given and I’ll transfer the data.  It’ll take a bit so if you got any questions now’s the time.”

John handed over his scroll and Emerald began the transfer process.  After a moment John asked the only question he could.

“Why did Cinder do it?  Why did she want to attack Vale?”

“All she told us was that humans had become too used to living in safety.  The world is dangerous and we had forgotten that part of it, and Cinder wanted to remind us.”  Emerald leaned back against the tree as she looked at John, expecting another question.

“Why help Cinder then?  If she wants to wipe out humanity, then shouldn’t you be trying to stop her?”  The woman’s face darkened, hardened.

“You have no right to ask me that,” Emerald spoke softly, but each syllable carried all the sharpness of her knives.  She glared at the ground for a moment, then took a deep breath, calming herself, “All you need to know is after I saw what was happening I couldn’t take it anymore.  There were too many innocents getting hurt.”

Fortunately, before things could get any more awkward, a beeping signaled that the transfer had finished.  Emerald tossed John the scroll.

“Okay, our business is done.  I’ll call Neo off your Maiden.”

“Who?”  That was the second time she’d mentioned that name.

“One of Roman Torchwick’s lackeys.  He died in the Battle of Beacon, and I think she wants Cinder taken down the most out of any of us.”

* * *

 

Autumn skidded to a stop, grunting in frustration.  This wasn’t getting anywhere.  She would try and try to land a hit on her opponent, but every time she got close, the smaller woman would just somehow jump or flip out of the way.  But despite having every opportunity, the pink-and-brown-haired girl hadn’t hit harder than a tap.  It was like she was getting toyed with.

“I’m getting sick of this.”  Autumn dropped her weapon and stood still, focusing herself.  Maybe her attacker could dodge a spear, but could she stand against the power of the Fall Maiden?  Fire came from Autumn’s eyes and she unleashed a blast straight towards her assailant.

The moment the blast appeared to hit the woman she was facing shattered and disappeared.

“Where did you go?”  Autumn prowled the clearing like a predator, her eyes still glowing as she hunted for her opponent.

“Don’t worry about it.”  Autumn jumped and spun to face the person who’d spoken, calming down when she saw that it was John.  Her Shadow continued, “That was one of Emerald’s associates.  She’s been known to play with her opponents and just vanish like that.”  John walked up and placed a hand on Autumn’s shoulder.  She thought she felt him squeeze her shoulder slightly, but she couldn’t be sure.  For now, she felt it would be better to act like he didn’t.

“It was just so frustrating!” Autumn complained, “I couldn’t land anything on her, then when I might have finally had a chance, she just disappears!”

“It’s fine.  What’s important is that you’re alright,”—was his hand shaking?—“and we got what we came for.  I found a hideout when I was looking for the firewood.  It was deserted and had been for a few weeks.  This lead is a dead end.  After tonight we pack up and make our way back to Vale.”

“But what about the woman who attacked me?”

“If I had to guess, I’d say she was here to destroy what was left of the hideout.  Not much of a point going after her, though.  After that trick, she could be anywhere.” 

“Wasn’t there any clues in that hideout?  Maybe if we go back we can figure out where they went.”  Autumn was talking rapidly but something didn’t quite feel right.  Suddenly she felt legs giving out, and John went from resting a hand on her shoulder to holding her up.

“Whoa there, calm down.”  He leaned forward, looking her over, “That was your first time using your Maiden powers, wasn’t it.  That’ll wear you out.”  He shook his head, “You’re in no shape to continue this investigation.  We’re heading back to Vale and that is the end of it.”  Autumn opened her mouth to protest, but before she could say anything, everything went black.

* * *

 

“Okay, Autumn,” John rolled his shoulders, giving his charge a slight jostle, “I know your exhaustion from the Maiden powers doesn’t last this long.  Now get off of me.”  Autumn let go of John and let herself settle to the ground, boots making a soft thunk on the paved ground.  He had carried her part of the way to the airport the Agency’s planes departed from and although she’d walked as much as she could, she hadn’t been quite up to her full strength and had required another lift.  And if she’d stayed on his back a little longer than she needed to, well…

“Aww, I was having fun.”  Autumn jogged toward the plane that they were going to be using to get back to Vale.  As she boarded the turned and yelled towards John, “Come on!  We’ve gotta make sure they have barf bags!”

John groaned as he walked up the loading ramp to the plane trying to ignore the sickening feeling that was growing in his gut.  He was not going to enjoy this flight at all.


	9. Interlude 1: Broken Wings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unlike the other chapters, which I just edited, this is one I actually wrote. It's just a short scene taking place in the same universe.

“Hey, man.”  The young man sat on the ground in front of the Battle of Beacon memorial, facing it.  He didn’t know if the person he was talking to could hear him at all, but if he could, this seemed like the best place to try to reach him.  Or well, the second best, but somehow going to the place he died didn’t seem like the best idea.  Especially since the construction crews hadn’t cleared the rubble yet.

                “How’re you doing?” his face screwed up as soon as the question left his mouth.  That was a stupid question.  Even if he was somehow hanging out in the afterlife listening, he couldn’t answer.  He tried again, this time keeping the focus on him—he’d always been good at that.

                “So, uhh…  Things are pretty much the same at Beacon, now that everything’s fixed up.  I mean, the classes are smaller, and the professors are more tired than usual—Oobleck actually taught a class at a normal speed, can you believe it?—but besides that it’s pretty much the same.” 

His mouth twisted into an ironic smile as he continued, “So the Headmaster put together some kind of… I think he said ‘inter-kingdom peacekeeping force’ or something like that, and he wanted us in on it.  I mean, he talked to everyone who fought in the battle, but still.  We told him we didn’t wanna do it until after we’re finished at Beacon. The guys said we’ve still got a lot to learn, and I… yeah, they’re right.”  His face fell as he shook his head, “We shouldn’t have even gone out there.  If we hadn’t…”  No, he couldn’t keep talking about that.  He wasn’t visiting his dead partner to get all mopey.  Maybe he could change the subject. 

“They put a new guy on our team so we still have four.  His name’s Robin, and he’s alright, I guess.  Not you, though.  He’s quiet, but I’m not surprised.  Poor asshole lost his whole team during the battle.  I don’t know how he keeps going.  I mean, one’s hard enough…”  The young man leaned forward, cradling his head in his hands.  He wasn’t going to cry.  He’d told himself that he wouldn’t cry.  He didn’t cry, ever.

                “Look, Russel, I am so sorry.”  Cardin Winchester pressed his forehead against the memorial wall, tears trickling down his face, “I was an idiot, and I… I got you killed.”  Now that he’d admitted it, the words came pouring out of his mouth, “If I hadn’t charged at that Ursa like a moron, you wouldn’t have had to shove me, and it wouldn’t have…  You’d still be alive, and I wouldn’t be here crying on a damn wall.”  He punctuated the last few words by pounding his head against the memorial, “Damn, man, I am so sorry.”

                Cardin sat there for he didn’t know how long, his forehead and hand resting against the cold stone of the memorial.  When he was finally able to pull himself away from his vigil, the sun had gone down.  He stood up on shaky legs from sitting too long, bracing himself against the wall. 

                “I’ll come by again,” he said, tucking his hands into his pockets, “tell you what’s going on.  Might bring the rest of the team along next time.”  That was probably a lie.  He didn’t want the others to see him being this pathetic.  It’d ruin what little credibility he had left. 

                “See ya.”  With those last two words, Cardin turned and began the long walk back to Beacon.


	10. An Approaching Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter begins a new story arc, one that I planned. This is also where the BumbleBY starts to come into play.

The next few weeks after the confrontation with Emerald passed, thankfully, without incident.  The intel remained on John’s scroll, however, a glaring reminder that this peace was only temporary.  The information was patchy—Cinder seemed to like to keep the details of her plans on a need-to-know basis, and was stingy about what Emerald needed to know—but two general points of interest stood out: Cinder wanted to know just how far a Semblance could be pushed, and she still was focused on regaining the rest of the Fall Maiden’s powers and using them to their full extent.  Both were concerning to say the least, and the Agency had been working on figuring out a way to combat Cinder and her forces.

But for John and Autumn, at least, life had gone back to being normal.  Or at least, as normal as the life of a Maiden and Shadow could be.  Professor Ozpin had arranged for the two to live in an apartment close to the Agency HQ to stay so they didn’t have to continue to stay in the Vault.  They were both extremely thankful for that—neither wanted to think about what had happened down there. 

This particular afternoon, John was seated on the couch that was located in the central living area of the apartment while Autumn paced nearby.  Every few seconds, she would turn towards him and make a strange face.

“Autumn,” John sighed and lowered the newspaper he was reading, “what the hell are you even doing?  Besides acting like a five-year-old.”

Autumn stopped in front of John and placed her hands on her hips, “I am trying to make a certain _someone_ ,” she pointed at him, “smile.  Because the only time I ever see anything other than a scowl is when Ruby comes by and makes a fool of herself.”

“I smile more than you think.” John smirked pointedly up at Autumn.

“No, what you are doing right now in smirking.  I am talking about a genuine smile.  Like the one on Ruby’s face whenever she talks about weapon modifications.  Or the one Nora has around pancakes.”

Before John could start a retort his scroll pinged.  He pulled the scroll out of his pocket and held it up to his ear.

“John, I need you and Autumn in the briefing room at HQ in an hour.”

“Right.  We’ll be there soon.”  But the caller had already hung up before John finished speaking.  This had to be urgent.  Professor Ozpin rarely ever called.  Even summons to important meetings were done through message.

John set his newspaper on the couch next to him and stood up, turning his head to glance at Autumn as she fell in behind him.

“Ozpin has a mission for us,” his tone was businesslike, the levity of earlier forgotten, “come on we don’t want to be late.

* * *

 

“Sorry to call you two in on such a short notice but something urgent has come up.”  Professor Ozpin stood before the two in the briefing room, a white-knuckled grip on his ever-present mug. “One of our agents in the field went dark.”

“Why is this so important, Sir?”  John’s eyebrows scrunched in confusion, “Qrow went dark all the time when you sent him out in the field.”  His teacher had always said having to check-in every-so-often could lead to a cover being blown.

“I understand how Qrow works.  However, all a check-in requires is the agent’s scroll to be turned on and a ping will be picked up here.  This agent has missed the last 4 pings.”

“Who is it?” This time Autumn was the one who spoke.  Concern was evident on her face, and understandably so—in the past few weeks, she had befriended a large chunk of the Agency, so chances were she knew whoever it was.

The professor placed his scroll on his desk then sat down and tapped the screen.  The familiar image of a black-haired girl with a black bow was projected.  “Blake Belladonna was assigned to track down White Fang camps and determine whether they were still allied with Cinder.”

“You let her be assigned to tracking down the White Fang and you didn’t expect something like this to happen?” John asked incredulously. 

“I did not assign her the task,” the silver-haired man clarified, leaning forward, “She volunteered, and I suspect she would have gone after the White Fang anyway had I not permitted her.  I had hoped she would be better off with Agency oversight, but now she has disregarded that.” 

John sighed.  Yang was right, it seemed.  Blake really had changed.  _Although I suppose we all have,_ he reflected bitterly as he took in the confusion on Autumn’s face.  

“Hang on,” Autumn sounded just as confused as she looked, “Why not send Yang?  She and Blake are partners, right?  Wouldn’t she be the best person to send?”  Professor Ozpin shook his head, “I considered it, but there’s too much risk that she would disappear as well.”  Autumn still looked baffled, but understanding dawned in John’s eyes.

He turned and started making his way to the door.  “Just send the coordinates to her last known location and we will head straight there.”

* * *

 

“Did you hear that?” John held out an arm, stopping Autumn, “There’s something over there.”  With his other hand, he indicated a patch of bushes that had just rustled.  The two were just outside Vale’s walls on the way to the known White Fang camp that had been Blake’s last known location.  They were traveling on foot this time—this mission covered a much shorter distance and called for more subtlety.  Although not enough if they were being followed already.

“Grimm?” Autumn murmured, her hands already going for her weapon.

“Maybe,” John’s sword was drawn and he was staring intently at the suspicious spot, “but we’re too close to Vale.”  He took a couple of steps towards the source of the sound, but before he could go any farther, a familiar blonde burst out from the bushes.

“Phew, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to catch up to you,” Yang Xiaolong walked up alongside John and Autumn casually, as if they had planned this all along, “So you’ve got the coordinates, right?  How far are we from where Blake was last?”

“It’s not that far from Vale, we should be…” Autumn began, but John cut her off curtly with a, “You shouldn’t be here.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”  Yang turned from facing Autumn to glare at John, “Blake’s in trouble.  Of course I should be here.”

“Professor Ozpin said…”

“He said I was too close, that he didn’t want to risk me running off the way Blake did,” Yang finished John’s sentence for him, “Yeah, he said that to me too, right before he basically locked me in Agency HQ.  But I’m here, and I’m helping you find my partner,” Yang’s eyes narrowed, and for a second, John could have sworn he saw red, “no matter what either of you tell me.”

Autumn smiled and, attempting to defuse the situation before it escalated, said, “Well, the more the merrier, right, John?”  While she was smiling, her eyes dared him to try to argue.  John, knowing he’d been beaten, sighed, “Fine.”

* * *

 

“So what’s the problem with Blake going after the White Fang, anyway?”  Autumn asked as the trio walked through the woods, “Or with you going after her, Yang?  I think that all sounds like it’d make sense.” 

“It isn’t that Blake isn’t a good choice,” John said, shaking his head, “it’s that she is too good.  Blake used to be part of the White Fang but left prior to her entering Beacon.”  John looked intently at Autumn’s face for a moment, but before he could add anything Yang spoke up.

“There’s more to it than that,” she said, her voice low, “There’s a guy.  I think he’s high-ranking in the White Fang, but I don’t know how.  And he…”  Yang took a pause before continuing.  “He was Blake’s partner when she was in the White Fang.  During the Battle of Beacon, Blake and I were separated.  I was looking for her, and when I found her, he was about to stab her,” she sighed, “I, well… I lost my temper.  I changed him, and the next thing I knew,” Yang held her prosthetic arm out flexed her hand, “My arm was gone.  Blake saved my life—saved both our lives, but she blames herself, maybe even more than she blames him.”

“Oh,” Autumn’s face fell and she spent the next few minutes in contemplative silence.

“But then why us?  Isn’t there someone else who could do this?  We should be focusing on figuring out where Cinder is and how to get the rest of my Maiden powers.”

“We were chosen because if the White Fang is still involved with Cinder, Blake might have found out something important.” 

“Besides,” Yang added resentfully, “John’s the only person who was close to Blake that’s around.  That he trusts, anyway,” that last part was growled under her breath.

Wait, John knew Blake that well?  Autumn was curious, but she filed that question in her mind for later.  They were almost there, and they shouldn’t be distracted.

(Page Break)

The three spent several hours searching the forest before John stopped in front of several subtle scratches on a tree, holding up a hand to stop his companions as well.

“These are White Fang symbols.  If we follow them we should be able to find where the camp is.”  John ran his fingers over one of the signs.

“You sure?”  Yang leaned forward and squinted as if to get a better view of the markings, “They just look like some random scratches to me.  How do you know it wasn’t some Ursa sharpening its claws?”

“Qrow taught me a lot.”  He grinned, then held up his scroll, adding, “It was also in the briefing that Ozpin sent to me.”

John was able to use the signs to find a trail which led to an eerily quiet campsite.

“I think this is the place John.”  Autumn hesitated, searching for signs of activity at the campsite, “What do we do?”

Yang leaned forward, scanning the campsite intently.  “Y’know,” she commented, “I thought the White Fang camp would have more White Fang in it.”

Autumn nodded, “There’s no one here, but the tents and stuff are.  What do you think that means?”

“It means they had to leave in a hurry,” John stepped out into the camp, confident that there was no one there, “Could be Grimm, or...” he paused, then sighed, “Let’s search the camp.  Be careful.  Whatever made them leave might still be here.” 

“You don’t know Blake like I do, if there was something here that wasn’t White Fang, it is either dead or long gone.”  Yang stood and made her way into the camp.

The camp didn’t seem too terribly disorganized, but John did notice several of the tents were riddled with bullet holes.  Either the camp was attacked or the White Fang had horrible safety standards when it came to practice exercises.  Either way, that probably ruled out a Grimm attack.  The campfire had been out for a while, if John had to guess it had been at least half a day since it had been lit.  John noticed Yang at a table near the center of camp, picking up cups and tossing them aside before checking the nearby crates as if searching for any sign that would place Blake at this particular camp.  He was about to check in one of the tents, but before he could enter it he heard Autumn call out from the entrance of the large central tent.

“John, come here!”  She waved him over, “I found something.”


End file.
